This book explains how voters evaluate women candidates, who
votes for them, and why. Women comprise an ever-increasing
percentage of the candidate pool for elective office in the
United States. Public opinion surveys profess strong support
for female candidates, yet many of these same candidates
still encounter skepticism (at best) or hostility (at worst)
from the public. The role of candidate gender in elections
is a complex one. Yet, our understanding of how voters react
to these women is often based on election-specific,
anecdotal, or hypothetical evidence. Voting for Womenis one
of the first book-length treatments of both how the public
evaluates female candidates and whether and when people will
support them at the polls. It also provides a history of
women and elections in the U.S. and analysis of contemporary
data on how voting environments can influence womenâ€™s success.